


Don't Scare Me Like That

by Oblivion_Wanderer



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, spoilers for Warmind dlc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14808648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oblivion_Wanderer/pseuds/Oblivion_Wanderer
Summary: After the ceiling of the cavern caves in, Nelan's Ghost, Ivo, panics a bit- he can't find her.





	Don't Scare Me Like That

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the Warmind dlc
> 
> Originally written at 2AM post Warmind release bc I kept thinking about one thing Ghost said and I was stuck on that and thinking things. Was anyone else hit in the feels when Ghost was calling out for his Guardian after a certain worm god made their apperance?
> 
> (basically these are my thoughts on that moment)

Ivo finds himself in snow when his vision comes back online. Annoyed he’s somehow covered in snow, he quickly hovers up and out of it; twirling and spinning around to get the snow off him, and then seeing the cavern again.

Right… This place. They’d found Nokris here, and Nelan, his Guardian, had done the only thing she could; fight. She fought through the Hive, and when she had called on her Golden Gun at the very end, she unloaded the whole round of solar bullets into its head. She’d placed the shard into the center of the cavern and-

Well, things had gotten weird after that.

The area around them had started to shake. There was some voice, loud and echoing in a language he didn’t know and then… that _thing_ had come through the cavern. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen. It was definitely Hive, and looked similar to those worm creatures found on the Dreadnought, but this was massive. He didn’t have time to process it when the cavern ceiling came down on them. That’s probably what caused him to go offline, and would explain why he’d woken up in snow. That creature- it must have caused the ceiling to collapse when it came through.

But now that he was awake and back up, he could begin to question what it was he had just seen.

“What in the world was that?” He asked aloud, but mostly addressing it to Nelan. “That wasn’t like any Hive creature we’ve seen before. Was that Xol we just-”

He had turned, expecting to find Nelan, but she wasn’t there.

“Guardian?” Ivo calls, worried.

Where is she? Where did she go? She was here- she was right here with him!

He spins around, looking frantically for any sign of Nelan. She couldn’t have just disappeared. She couldn’t be gone. He’d seen her defeat Nokris, place the shard down. That had happened, and she had been there, and-

> _he’s waking up in ruins; the City on fire. He quickly figures out the Light is gone, but more importantly his Guardian is nowhere to be found. Nelan’s not here- the Light was taken from her too. Where is she?_
> 
> _He’s hurt, but still he looks for her, like he did for centuries before they even met. He has to find her, but he can’t feel her. What happened to her after he fell? Where is she? Where’s his Guardian?_
> 
> _What if she’s-_
> 
> _No, she can’t be dead. He searched for her for so long; she can’t just be- but what if she is? He can’t bring her back if she’s dead, not with the Light gone._
> 
> _He was alone for so long; he doesn’t want to be alone again._
> 
> _Nelan- Where are you, Nelan?!_

Ivo’s shell shudders, recalling the memory.

When the Cabal had attacked the City, Ivo had been separated from Nelan when they lost the Light. He woke up two days after the Traveler had been captured by Ghaul, and Nelan was nowhere in sight. When he realized this, he had set out looking for her, even though it was dangerous for him to remain in the City at the time; he knew he had to find her. The thing was, it wasn’t being found by the Cabal that scared him then; what scared him was how he might find Nelan, for he hadn’t known whether she was alive or dead. He did find her eventually, heavily injured and barely holding on, but he healed her and they escaped.

However, he can’t find Nelan now, and it’s like that horrible day all over again.

Ivo found her then, but what if he can’t find her now? What if she’s buried? What if she’s hurt? She needed him if she was hurt-

What if she was dead for good?

What if he was alone, without his Guardian?

“No… No, no, no. She’s here somewhere, she has to be!” He’s looking around the cavern again, quickly spiraling into panic. If he had a heart he was sure it would be racing; desperately trying to find Nelan. “I’ve found her twice before; I can- Sh-she has to be here. She wouldn’t leave me a-alone.”

He continues to look, but he might as well be looking though rubble again.

“Guardian! Where are you, Guardian?!”

And then he spots something familiar; purple in the snow. He flies towards it and he can see that it’s Nelan’s Graviton Lance. It was given to her as a gift for her efforts during the Red War, and aside from her reforged sidearm, it was her favorite weapon. He’d recognize it anywhere.

Ivo just stares at it; the pulse rifle is here, but not its owner.

“Nelan…”

 

* * *

 

It’s cold. In a way it reminds her of when she woke up in the Cosmodrome; it had been cold then too. This isn’t the Cosmodrome though; it’s far too quiet.

Nelan draws in a breath; shaky and pained- everything hurts. She moves her hand, and it doesn’t really register what her fingers are moving against, only that it’s cold- snow. That’s right; snow and ice. She’s on Mars; in those ice tunnels, in the cavern.

And then she remembers that voice and that creature she saw just before the ceiling collapsed.

‘ _Xol.’_ Her mind supplies. She had put the shard in the center of the cavern to draw it out… and it had worked. ‘ _It was Xol.’_

Nelan recalled the creature now; a sight to behold for sure. It was like one of those worms from the Dreadnought except much, much bigger. She’s never seen anything like it.

That. That’s what was reawakened and was now threatening Rasputin. Rasputin was in danger. She needed to move; she needed to tell Ana and Zavala.

Nelan tries to move forward, crawling, but doesn’t get far. She crawls forward a couple inches and collapses.  Half of her is covered by snow and weighing her down, making it hard to move. It also doesn’t help that every inch of her body is in pain and she is cold, so very cold. Though she still wears her helmet, she wonders briefly if she has a concussion. She doesn’t want to move- it hurts- and it’s easier if she stays still. But is she stays down here in this cavern for long, she knows what will become of her.

Is… is this how she dies, then? Does she die here in this dark place? Alone and frozen-

“Guardian! Where are you, Guardian?!”

That voice. It’s Ivo; her Ghost. That’s right- he’s here too, and he’s looking for her. It’s her he’s calling for. 

He sounds so worried and it pulls at her heart. Maybe it’s because she knows he’s always cared deeply for her, because she is his Guardian. Or maybe it’s because she knows when they were both separated at the start of the Red War, he was looking for her then. She still remembers Ivo calling her title when she saw him, his words when she collapsed in front of him. 

> “ _You’re alive! I- I thought I lost you…”_

“Ivo.” Nelan whispers, now trying to get herself off the ground.

She has to move, she has to get to him. She can’t lay here, give up and allow herself to die. No, no, no- she can’t. Xol is going to go after Rasputin- no, she can’t let that happen. Nevermind if the Warmind is an ally or not; Xol is a threat to Rasputin and to Mars in general. She needs to regroup with Ana and Zavala and pray Rasputin will help. He has every reason to try and protect himself against Xol.

But first, she has to get to Ivo; her Ghost is looking for her. She couldn’t leave him alone, she couldn’t leave him without a Guardian.

So she pulls herself out of the snow.

 

* * *

 

He doesn’t know how long he stares at the forlorn Graviton Lance, but eventually his sensors pick up a noise from behind him. Quickly he turns, half expecting to see a Hive creature, but instead he finds Nelan.

She’s half crawling forward in the snow, and half trying to stand.

“Thank the Light!” Ivo exclaims, flying forward and circling around the Hunter as she struggles to stand. He quickly scans her and takes note of her injuries- oh Traveler, she’s hurt. He heals her, like he’s done several times in the past. It’s all to familiar to when he found her in the City as it burned, but he doesn’t want to think about that right now. He has to focus on helping her, making sure she’s okay.

The coms come back to life as he does so, the voices of Ana and Zavala coming through. They chatter back and forth as Nelan gets her bearings again, and soon they have the beginnings of a plan.

Zavala asks for their opinion, and Ivo replies with, “We say it’s about time.”

“Come on up to the surface; we’ll meet you there.” Ana replies before the coms fall silent.

“Nelan, I found your Graviton Lance. You must have lost it when the ceiling collapsed.” He flies over toward it, waiting for her to reclaim it. Quietly, she walks over and picks it up, dusting the snow off it. With one hand, she then flips down her hood and proceeds to take off her helmet. “Not here, there could still be-”

“I need to catch my breath.” She interrupts. “Let me breathe the air for a moment.”

“Yes, of course.” He noticed how Nelan was trembling. “Are you cold?”

“Yeah…”

He doesn’t say anything to that, but it doesn’t stop him from wishing he could do something more to help her.

She stands quiet for a moment, eyes closed, before she says, “I heard you calling for me. Everything hurt, but I could hear you.”

That he had, but he didn’t know she had heard him. He had hoped so, but when he hadn’t spotted a trace of her…

“I couldn’t find you.” He said solemnly. “When I got out of the snow myself I looked around but didn’t see you anywhere. I found your Graviton Lance but not you. It made me think back to the Red War; when the City fell. I was… I was scared something had happened; that maybe you had been buried or worse, and that you were…”

Ivo doesn’t finish the thought; he can’t bear to say it aloud.

Nelan opens her eyes and holds her hand out. “I’m sorry. I’m here now.”

He knows the familiar gesture. Without hesitation, he goes forward until his shell bumps against her chest armor. Nelan brings her hands around him, as if loosely holding him there, and tilts her head down.

“Don’t scare me like that again.” He mutters, though it comes out more sad than he intended.

“Shh. It’s okay.” Nelan hushes him. “I thought maybe I would die, but I- I heard you calling. I knew I had to move; find you. I couldn’t die and leave you alone, Ivo. So I followed your voice, like I had done then. And we have to stop Xol, do we not?”

He took comfort in her words; Nelan was tougher than she looked. She was right about Xol too; he’d seen it, they had to stop it. It seemed daunting, but they had faced things like Xol before. They were in this together.

But more importantly, Nelan was here now; safe. That’s what mattered.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Ivo said, wriggling free from her grasp.

“As am I.” She replied. “You _are_ okay, right?”

“A little chilled, maybe, but all systems are functioning as they should.”

“Good.”

And she smiled at him in that little fond way she did, the way that seemed to make her eyes shine brighter.

“We should probably head back to the surface, and quick.” Ivo suggested. “We need to regroup with Ana and Zavala. We need to protect Rasputin from Xol.”

“Seconded.” She slips her helmet back on and flips her hood up. “Let’s move, Ivo.”

“Right behind you.”


End file.
